Comparative Essay

By:Brian Rios

According to Jack Dangermond “The world that you and I live in is increasingly
challenged. Population growth, pollution, over-consumption, unsustainable patterns, social
conflict, climate change, loss of nature... these are not good stories.” In the Hunger Games and
The Lottery there is lots of violence and nature disasters.” ​In the Hunger Games by Suzanne
Collins and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, the purpose of the quote is that to show that the
populations is endangered by ​disasters, droughts, storms, fires, and brutal war for what little
sustenance remained and in the Lottery if your paper has something written on it you get killed.
In the Hunger Games the process is conducted by society because people are experiencing lots of
dangers like droughts, storms, fire and so on and in the Lottery the people experience the lottery
which was a bad thing because you get killed if you win. The basic outcomes in the Hunger
Games is nature's disaster and decreasing population and in the Lottery the outcome is that if you
win you die. In the Hunger Games the natural disasters left communities feelings by destroying
people's homes and people getting kill and in the Lottery the people throw rocks at the people
that won the Lottery and the person that won gets really scared about being killed. ​In the Hunger
Games and The Lottery there were two major similarities that they both play a game of being
lucky or unlucky and that they both have overpopulation and one major difference, which is that
the way the people die in both stories is very different.

One similarity is that they both consist people dying by fighting each other or being
killed by society. In the Lottery people kill the winner by stoning them to death is either being
lucky or unlucky. In paragraph 77 in “The Lottery” it said, “​Tessie Hutchinson was in the center
of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on
her. "It isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head.” This means that when the
villagers knew that Tessie Hutchinson won the lottery everyone started getting stone’s and going
towards her to stone Tessie to death. ​In the Hunger Games if your unlucky and get chosen to be a
tribute that means that you’ll have to fight to the death. In the Hunger Games paragraph 14 it
said, “​There must have been some mistake. This can’t be happening. Prim was one slip of paper
in thousands! Her chances of being chosen were so remote that I’d not even bothered worrying
about her. Hadn’t I done everything? Taken the tesserae, refused to let her do the same? One slip.
One slip in thousands. The odds had been entirely in her favor. But it hadn’t mattered.” This
means that there had been a chance that Prim couldn’t have been chosen out of thousands of
volunteers.​According to the text the Hunger Games and the Lottery there is a chance that you
could be lucky or unlucky if you're lucky you will survive and get to live but if you’re unlucky
you may or may not survive.

Another similarity is that there is overpopulation in the Hunger Games and in The Lottery
and the only way to get rid of some people is by sacrificing them or fighting to the death. In the
Lottery the black box was a game to get rid of people because towns were overpopulated. In the
Lottery paragraph 1 it said, “​In some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two
days and had to be started on June 26th, but in this village, where there were only about three
hundred people, the whole lottery took less than two hours.” This means that the lottery was
meant downgrade the amount of people in towns. ​In the Hunger Games the game was way to
reduce the amount of people in the city. In the Hunger Games in paragraph 7 the author stated,
“​The reaping is a good opportunity for the Capitol to keep tabs on the population as well.” This
means that the Hunger games was good way of keeping the population from increasing.
According to the text the Hunger Games and the Lottery they both play a game to decrease the
population.

One difference is that the Hunger Games and the Lottery is that they both die very
differently. In the Lottery, when a person won the lottery they were stoned to death by all the
people in town. In paragraph 75 and 77 said, “​Mrs. Dunbar had small stones in both hands, and
she said. gasping for breath, "I can't run at all. You'll have to go ahead and I'll catch up with
you." Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out
desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of
the head.” This means the person that wins the lottery get stoned to death. ​In the Hunger Games,
the people get killed by another person by one vs one combat. In paragraph 9 the author stated,
“​Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing
wins.” This means that in order to survive and not get killed you have to kill the other tribute.
According to the text the Hunger Games and the Lottery have a difference of how they people
die for example in the lottery you get stoned to death and in the Hunger Games you die by
combating others.

According to the text in the Hunger Games and the Lottery there were two main
similarities which is if you are lucky or unlucky and the overpopulation and one major
difference is that both text have people dying differently. These two text taught me that humanity
and society shouldn’t be about killing each other to make things better. In the future there should
be a more organized way like voting and explaining why should this person leave town/city.